The Lesser
Spotted Woodpecker has declined rapidly and significantly since around 1980, following
a more shallow increase. Although monitoring through the CBC is limited by census
plot sample size, a range contraction (Gibbons et al. 1993) suggests that
the UK-wide pattern is similar. Reductions in the area of mature broadleaved woodland,
losses of non-woodland trees such as elms, increases in woodland isolation and
reductions in the occurrence of dead wood in woodland are candidate causes for
the decline (Vanhinsbergh et al. 2001).